Gamblers Unanimous

We didn’t seem to stop today; we started by walking to the strip and catching the monorail from the Sahara to the MGM Grand Casino. Its $5 for a single trip and $14 for a day pass and as we were only having a maximum of 2 journeys it made sense to pay for a single journey.

The first few photos are of the Fremont Street light show that we watched the other night. Its quite spectacular with the whole of Fremont Street a part of it; all 5 blocks, as it runs along the sky between the buildings. You can only catch a small part of it on a camera and not much more with your eyes otherwise you will fall over swinging your head backwards and forewords. You end up just watching one way because some things are repeated along the strip and it’s the only way anyway. They also have amazing surround sound that sweeps through the street. I’m so pleased that you all talked us into coming back to see it, and for us, it’s better than the main strip anyway. We like it in the Golden Nugget so much that we booked two extra nights so that we wouldn’t be travelling around on our wedding anniversary. Today we had quite an early start and decided to go to see some of the casinos and hotels on the main strip.

I was a little worried about Claire’s injured foot and thought it best to get a taxi to the strip, but Claire would hear none of it and wanted to exercise it anyway. Claire had read that the monorail started at Sahara but as we had only seen it n the opposite side of the strip and I had not seen it crossing over I didn’t believe her. Anyway we walked to Stratosphere again and had a little look around and a gamble. No sign of the monorail so we grabbed a $1 hot dog for breakfast and walked down the road to Sahara on the other side. As we J walk and don’t wait for the green man we ended up being trapped on the road by the railings and had to jump over quickly. Easier said than done, poor Claire is a bit short and I’m not as fit as I used to be; it’s a shame that nobody was videoing us as you would have had a big as a laugh as we did when we ended up in the soil and plants on the other side.

We liked Sahara and remarkably Claire was right, the monorail does start from there. We bought our ticket and didn’t have to wait long because they leave every 6 minutes. I spent the whole time taking photos out the window that didn’t come out and looking for where it crossed the strip to the side that Id seen it on. Six stops later, I was disappointed and confused as it never did cross the strip, so what was the monorail that we had seen on the other side that made us look for it in the first place?

The final stop is by the MGM and we had a look around there before crossing over to the side where we had seen the damn train in the first place. The only thing we could find was signs, for what they called, the tram so I guess that was it. We spent hours walking around and having a gamble in each casino in turn; MGM, Excalibur, Luxor and the Tropicana. As we have got used to Down Town Las Vegas and the prices there, they all seemed a total rip off and hugely expensive. Most the black jack machines don’t allow, splitting pairs or doubling down which is the main way that you almost keep pace with the banker. You never win, but you cane avoid loosing quickly by sensible strategy. Sometimes things seem to go right and you start feeling like you really have the measure of it, then suddenly it all switches and you are chasing shadows. But to take away standard functions that are your only tools spoils your fun. All the casinos on the strip are spectacular and have something to offer in their own right; all have marvellous facilities, and I guess rooms, but for gambling, why are the main crowds not down town? If they are genuine gamblers, why don’t they go to Fremont Street where the odds are so much better and the minimum stakes lower? They still have massive upper limits, so it can’t be that the serious gamblers want to bet higher than the maximum. It is difficult for me to imagine just how much money changes hands in this town, it’s almost obscene. There are beggars everywhere along the strip, in particular across the bridges over the busy highways; but I haven’t seen one Downtown. Some of them look for the sympathy vote and sit quietly with their heads down looking as sad as possible, while others are amazing, I have never seen beggars like them. One was shouting, “You go and have a good time, don’t worry about me; the important thing is that YOU have a good time, and don’t be wasting your time with idiots like me”. Another had a sign that said that he was a rich man in disguise because it paid well; it’s worth crossing the bridges to see all the different styles. All the rest are selling bottled water for $1 a go. The other people after your attention on the strip, are little short Mexican’s that all have a huge pile of, what look like the old fashioned cigarette cards, but advertise escort girls. They click the top three or four cards against the pack as loud as they can, before thrusting them towards you in the hope that you will lighten their load. I wasn’t sure why they all seemed so short; but I guess that all the taller ones have proper jobs.

We soon got bored of the strip this time even though I’m really pleased that we made the effort to see the places that we had missed the first time because of the silly shows we committed to. We hailed a cab from one of the casinos and headed back downtown where we belong. Maybe we should have hailed one on the street because the cab screen was charging $6 before we got out of the hotel ground. I knew it would be more the other way back; we only paid $10 with the tip coming from downtown last time we got one. The taxi bill was $24.25 by the time we were back; two and a half times as much as coming the other way, I hope he enjoyed his 75 cents tip. I think he started to feel guilty on the way back because he switched his machine off. Either that or he could sense the heat from Claire.

Anyway, because we had had a little go in the main strip casinos, we thought that we had better try the other ones out on Fremont Street. It’s strange, again we could sense the difference between casinos on the same street, the Golden nugget where we are staying, is a little snootier than any of the others and the further you go down the street the more relaxed and rough they get. Even on Fremont Street, some don’t allow double down or splitting pairs; amazing, it must decrease your odds by about 4 or 5%. I guess you guys notice differences between places in the games that you play? I’m quite pleased that tomorrow, Friday our wedding anniversary, is our last day as Claire seems to be getting to like this black jack a little too much and its getting harder and harder to drag her away each time. She hardly drinks her drink when she is playing, and you know as well as I do, that’s a little odd.

Have you noticed how many spray can artists there are in Vegas? I have never seen them before; you see, paints, chalks, cartoon portraits and even sand artists everywhere in the cities but not spray can artists. Also, every other city in the USA that I have ever been to, and most others around the world, seem to have graffiti everywhere around the streets. I guess that they must see more of a profit in the artist stuff in Las Vegas than hanging around under bridges. Have you seen any graffiti in Las Vegas?

The last picture is of one of the restaurants in Caesars Palace called Olives. The famous American chef is Todd English and he had a restaurant on the Queen Mary II where we got married. Although the normal restaurant food was spectacular on the boat, we treated ourselves to his fare once as it was a special occasion. Happy anniversary Darling, where you taking me tonight?